The
Chihuahuan Desert is a
desert, and an
ecoregion designation, that straddles the
U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the
Mexican Plateau. It is bordered on the west by the extensive
Sierra Madre Occidental range, along with overlaying northern portions of the
Sierra Madre Oriental. On the
United States side, it occupies much of southwestern
Texas and small parts of
New Mexico and
Arizona. On the
Mexican side, it covers the northern half of the state of
Chihuahua, along with the majority of
Coahuila, north-eastern
Durango, the extreme northern part of
Zacatecas, and small western portions of
Nuevo León. With an area of about , it is the third largest desert of the Western Hemisphere and the
second largest in North America, after the
Great Basin Desert.